Sanne Van Rijn (Netherlands)
Morphotope
The gardener asks the bush whether it wants to become an animal, and trims its branches into the shape of an elephant. The circus performer asks his dog to bark a song and puts him in a dress. The child is asked to behave himself, and imagines he is Superman. The ballerina asks her body to fly, and she trains her arms and legs until she becomes a swan that dies. Morphotope is very human. We think we are free individuals, but in fact we try to get as close as possible to the image others have of us. We do things, but it is others who give meaning to our actions. As individuals we have no allies; we only get them by looking for and maintaining the norm. But what if the ideal to which we are to aspire is no longer very clear? Morphotope is about the necessity of self-presentation and the inevitable mistakes everyone makes in it. In this play three performers will be looking for the norm of the day. They let themselves be led entirely by what you expect of them. So they have hardly any preparation, but fortunately you know what you have to do. They exist in your eyes. It is up to you to see where and how you want them.
Sanne van Rijn devotes herself in her work to what she regards as the extraordinary in the ordinary. ‘She carefully juxtaposes a minimal action with a minimal sound, with a minimal image, with a minimal movement, forcing the viewers to review and change their way of looking and listening, to review and change their perception of time and space. “She is on the stage, quite forlorn, with a stony face, with the humour shining through. You just cannot help looking at her.”
Sanne van Rijn studied classical ballet and photography. Later she attended the Joint Faculty for Sound and Vision of the Hogeschool in The Hague. In recent years she has staged various performances and productions, including This Is How I Give My Cat a Pill, Let’s Be Firm, Swan Lake, Laughing / Crying, Slowly to Zero and Morphotope. She also performed with Forced Entertainment, Theatergroep Hollandia and NTGent.